Best Friends All Along
by grace121
Summary: A simple little story, about Zoro and Sanji's relationship after the Thriller Bark Kuma incident. Nakamaship ZxS


His ears were roaring, too load and way too fast, his heartbeats the only sound in his head. If he hadn't calmed his heartbeat before diving into that pain bubble, he was sure that his heart would have exploded by now. His veins too, at least those who hadn't already. How long has it been since the last bits of pain had sunk in only to come out breaking a bone or a ripping a piece of his skin? It was way after he had lost the ability to sense anything else around him anyway. He vaguely wondered if others will find him and if he will be able to notice that at all. His eyes had been acting funny for a while. A hazy whirling blur was all he could see right now. His firing nerves all over his body, inside and out, had also left him completely unable to sense anything.

"...-live?"

He thought he heard a noise. It sounded like the cook. Was he shouting? Where was it coming from? He couldn't tell over the crazy roaming in his ears. He didn't even know how to turn towards the sound. Heck he didn't even know if he was standing or sitting or flat on his back. He tried to calm his heart. He needed to hear this.

"....-re is he?!!"

Much better. Yes, that's the cook all right. Relief washed over him when his realized the sharp kick to the cook's side hadn't been too much troublesome. He felt his eyes clear a little as well. Right, with a calm heart things were going to be clearer, at least for a while. He knew he shouldn't deliberately lower the heart rate for too long, because his heart beating madly was just to compensate for the lack of blood in his still functional vessels. But he felt a sudden urge to tell the cook he was alive and that he, they, shouldn't worry about him.

"What the hell happened here?!!"

Damn, Zoro wished Sanji would step into the small frame his eyes could still see . Zoro finally realized he was standing, and knew if he as much as flexed a muscle he would lose balance. He wasn't sure he had any balance right now either, but experience had told him not to move a muscle or he would fall. A fall now would be his end for sure. Zoro focused all his strength on forming words to reassure his nakama.

"Nothing..."

*Please cook, Sanji, don't worry about me. I know what it means to lose someone as close as family. A nakama.. I don't want to give you this pain.*

"..at all".

*I can't see you in that pain*

"like hell nothing you shithead!!! CHOPPER, GET OVER HERE…. Chopper…"

The cook was shouting louder but his voice was sounding more and more distant every millisecond. Zoro's vision has turned funny again too. While it was whirling before now it was more like turning on and off, starting from the corners and closing in. He suddenly felt nauseous and felt himself tilting to the right. Blood loss must have been taking effect then. Zoro felt his senses dulling slowly, nothing new in principle, as he had been through this before, but this time everything felt different. It felt like this time he had really pushed his body beyond its capacity. Zoro knew then that this could be very well the last minute of his life and he suddenly wished he could see the Sanji. A pitty, that his eyes didn't seem to see anymore. Had he fallen down? If Sanji was around had he catch him? Was he close now?

"...n't die.."

"...itty...mo"

"...ur as..."

Zoro felt himself drifting off, finally exhausted, but something was pressing his already damaged hand in a firm grip. That must have been Sanji,then. And this simple touch in the growing darkness was strangely calming and ... nostalgias. Zoro focused all his remaining power on the senses in his hand and give the hand holding his a press. All the memories, his childhood, Kuina, his dream, his sensei, then the crew, their fight and growing bond all passed like a breeze over his mind in a flash, before his last bit of strength reserved for pressing Sanji's hand also disappeared and he was embraced with darkness. Zoro left the conscious world with this final thought flashing in his closing brain: You're now my everything. Don't suffer too hard over my death...

******

To Sanji's dismay, Zoro kept being a shitty dumb marimo that he was and didn't even indicate he had heard a single word of Sanji's threats. The hand pressing Sanji's shaking hand slowly lost its strength and despite train of curses and swearing from Sanji's side, to Sanji's utter horror, Zoro went limp completely in a matter of a few seconds after being lowered to the ground.

Sanji saw Chopper running over the fallen rocks towards them, his bag in hand. He would be with them in less than handful of seconds. Sanji glared down, the swordman better keep fighting for this one minute or Sanji would personally make sure to give him hell in whatever hell he would be sent to. Trains of thoughts flashed in his mind about this man he had grown to fight with, annoy the hell out of, play games or share a mug of rum with, get backed up by, and finally, offer his life for. This stupid man lying motionless in front of him had absolutely no right to die on them now, after all they had gone through together.

Sanji angrily pressed his left hand below Zoro's jaw, looking for a pulse. Frustration and desperation built in as moments passed and no sign of life touched his fingers, until finally, when Sanji was sure he would die from holding his own breath for so long , or have his own heart stock from either sheer stress or unbounded anger, he felt a very weak but steady beat. Tense figure suddenly sagged, and Sanji found the corner of his eyes stinging, and anger giving way to a weird mixture of relief, gratefulness, and longing. Never before has he ever thought like this, like a kid wishing his …friend? ..brother? ..guardian? ..best friend?.. wake up and bring the earth and the world back to where it's supposed to be. Would Zoro be making fun of him when he woke up? Strangely enough Sanji found himself not caring at all as he increased his hold on his best friend's hand. Wait, best friend? The more the cook rolled this word in his mind the more he was shocked to realize that Zoro, the green haired muscle head marimo, the unmannered bull, indeed was his best shitty friend ever. God it was so obvious. Why had it taken him so long to realize that?

Sanji kept his firm hold on Zoro's hand the whole time that Chopper was screaming, running and panicking around the swordsman's body, and helped the doctor as much as he could by giving him all the information he had about what has happened. Sanji dazedly watched as Chopper gave Zoro all sorts of fluids and medicine, and after several hours and when all of their other nakama had fallen asleep around them, Chopper finally announced that the danger has been avoided and they could now move their friend from the uncomfortable place. It was just then that Sanji finally released his hold, reassured that even without his causing Zoro some extra pain to focus on and hang on to, the swordsman would still be all right.

He was right about Zoro being all right, because three days later the stubborn green haired marimo finally woke up.

Sanji had woken up earlier than others, as usual, to prepare the day's breakfast. Also, as usual, he had taken the longer road to the kitchen, passing by Zoro's bed just to check on him as before, when he noticed the silhouette of a figure sitting up in Zoro's place. He had never skidded across a room faster in his life. Unable to stop his grin, Sanji found himself calling to the man.

"About time you woke up you shitty scrawny marimo!" He drawled lazily even though his bright eyes couldn't hide his utter joy of finding the man finally up. God, he had missed Zoro so much!

Zoro's movement were slow, like he has just woken up from the long coma and was still trying to remember what had happened. But in the pink dawn light which was illuminating the room through the tall castle windows, a strange spark filled Zoro's eyes when he turned his face and met Sanji's eyes.

"Yo!"

Despite the coarse voice, rough from being unused for so long, hearing the simple word from Zoro's lips was enough to bring light back to Sanji's world, and for the first time since they had met, Zoro smiled to him. A genuine, delightful smile that even with that the bandages around his forehead and the bruises on the checks or dark circles under his eyes, gave Sanji a difficult time resisting the urge to first hug his friend and then kick his ass. Sanji's grin widened, eyes bright with delight and unlit cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth.

"Heh, Looks like someone needs to get some food back into them. If we don't give you something that marimo on your head is gonna turn yellow. Now, we don't want to lose our treasure, as ugly as it might be, do we?" he said light heartedly. Indeed he had missed talking to this guy.

"Che. I'd rather get bald than have my hair this girly yellow like yours… man.. I guess I overslept a little, again."

Zoro's comment was followed by a load scream of "Zoroooooo" from Chopper, who had just woken up in his desk not too far away from Zoro's bed. Chopper's scream woke the rest of the crew at once, and several exclamations of delight and happiness, greetings, cries and laughs soon filled the room.

Sanji took the chance to retreat to the kitchen. With his best friend back on his feet, he sure had a great feast to prepare today. He moved expertly around the room, humming to himself in happiness as he prepared Zoro's favorite food for breakfast, while planning which of Zoro's favorite foods to make next, for lunch, for dinner, maybe for the next day too, and maybe for the day after, and if he stayed a nice polite little marimo, every once in a while, from now on. ..

A/N: Hey guys! See? Nothing much happened here in this story! :P I just wanted to try something out. Hope you enjoyed the little peaceful moment. Please Review if you like! Thanks :)


End file.
